Businesses welcome Reeves’ growth agenda but what about the public? February 3, 2025 Rachel Reeves is talking a good game on growth, but Labour won’t be rewarded at the ballot box unless they can help ordinary people to feel better off, says Theresa Bischof Growth is in. And so too, is business apparently. Last week, Rachel Reeves and her growth brigade took a trip to Siemens in Witney [...]
House price growth slows despite ‘busier January than normal’ January 31, 2025 House price growth slowed slightly in January, but year-on-year growth remained robust despite higher interest rates. The annual rate of house price growth slowed to 4.1 per cent in January, compared with 4.7 per cent in December, according to the Nationwide House Price Index. House prices increased by 0.1 per cent month on month, after [...]
Pembroke VCT boss Andrew Wolfson: ‘New founders aren’t blaming Brexit’ January 30, 2025 Pembroke VCT boss Andrew Wolfson has backed brands like TALA and Pasta Evangelists. He tells us the wisdom he's picked up along his career.
Virgin Wines: ‘A decent Christmas was needed and delivered’ January 29, 2025 Virgin Wines delivered a strong Christmas trading performance and outperformed the wider market, although revenue remained flat year on year. Revenue increased by 6.7 per cent year-on year during the six weeks to 27 December, 2024, the company told markets this morning. Sales rose nine per cent in December 2024 versus December 2023, reaching the highest level since the Covid-19 lockdowns, [...]
Grow, baby, grow… but will Labour’s growth agenda be enough? January 29, 2025 City AM’s politics reporter, Jessica Frank-Keyes, unpacks the week in Westminster. Today, she tackles Labour’s growing promises. Picture a graph with the x axis stretching from 1800 to the present day. The data is represented as a fairly flat line along the bottom, up to about 1960. Then it bumps around at about a quarter [...]
Brits warned to brace for higher alcohol prices from next week January 28, 2025 On February 1 new duty rates on wine and spirits will come into force, meaning a rise in price for most alcohol. Under a new sliding system of duties, wine with a higher abv (alcohol by volume) will see the biggest price increase, with the duty on a 14.5 per cent abv wine to rise [...]
The Top 5 Charity Causes UK Employees Want To Support In 2025 January 24, 2025 In 2025, employees want more than a paycheque – they want purpose. With effective social impact being top of mind this year, aligning your CSR programmes with employee values is critical to boosting engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty within your team. Yet, a recent NVCO study revealed that one of the biggest barriers to participation is [...]
The UK’s housing crisis is creating a generation of broke retirees January 24, 2025 The affordability crisis in the UK housing market is creating a generation who will still face monthly mortgage or rent payments well into retirement, according to a new study. With deposits increasingly hard to save up for and mortgages increasingly burdensome, few people will be free of housing costs by 2050, unless something changes. A [...]
Denmark has the ‘happiest city in the world’. I spent a week there in search of their secret January 22, 2025 Can a city cure sadness? Adam Bloodworth visits Denmark’s other capital, Aarhus, to speak to some of the happiest people in the world You probably haven’t heard of Aarhus, but Denmark’s second biggest city – which has serious beef with Copenhagen – claims to be the ‘happiest city in the world’. The British Institute for [...]
Rachel Reeves’ tax hikes pose ‘major threat’ to UK labour market resilience January 20, 2025 The government's tax hike pose a "major threat" to the health of the labour market, a leading economist has warned.